USCIS Court Order Sends Some Held Applications Back to Normal Processing

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) posted an August 28, 2026 alert about a recent federal court order affecting some pending immigration benefit applications.

The short version

USCIS says a federal court enjoined two USCIS hold-policy memoranda, PM-602-0192 and PM-602-0194, and ordered USCIS to adjudicate affected pending applications in the normal course of process while litigation continues.

That does not mean every pending case is affected. The class is tied to the court order and the specific hold policies named by USCIS.

Who USCIS says the class covers

USCIS says the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued the order on August 24, 2026 in Red Eagle Law, L.C., et al. v. Joseph B. Edlow, case number 26-cv-04850-CRB.

According to USCIS, the class includes people who meet the class definition in the order, including individuals who:

• Are citizens or natives of one or more of the 39 countries listed in Presidential Proclamation 10949 or Presidential Proclamation 10998, or the Palestinian Authority; and
• Are seeking asylum with a pending Form I-589 application, or otherwise have a benefit application pending with USCIS; and
• Have an application subject to the adjudication hold imposed by PM-602-0192 or PM-602-0194 that had not received final adjudication as of the date of class certification.

What applicants should check

If you think this may involve your case, check the official USCIS alert, the court-order language, and any future USCIS instructions. Because this is active litigation, USCIS says it disagrees with the order but will follow its terms pending possible further judicial review.

For case-specific decisions, talk with a licensed immigration attorney or DOJ-accredited representative.

Official source

• USCIS alert: Recent Court Order on Hold Policies (Aug. 28, 2026)

*This article is general immigration information, not legal advice. The summary above is based on the USCIS alert linked in the official source.*